


Embrace Your Purpose: Saarebas

by helygen2017



Series: Embrace Your Purpose [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Qunari Children, Qunari Culture and Customs, Saarebas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-24 10:01:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16172825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helygen2017/pseuds/helygen2017





	Embrace Your Purpose: Saarebas

The tamassran’s eyes popped open, something had awakened her. She lay in the dark, listening to the normal sounds of the building, the wood creaking in the night breeze, the shift and sigh of imekari in their cots, the low croaks and whistles of nighttime creatures. A thin wail of a distressed imekari caught her attention. She threw off the covers of her bed and pulled on her robe as she quietly hurried from her quarters to the adjacent dormitory. Eight cots stood in two orderly rows along the long sides of the room. Eight small bodies lay tucked under the blankets of each cot. She scanned the room looking for signs that there was something wrong.

Halfway down the dormitory, she spotted a flicker of light. She gasped as she hurried to the bed stopping at the foot as she watched the flicker the lightning flare and vanish from the imekari’s hand as he whimpered in his sleep.

“Shhhhhshhhh,” she whispered as she gave the young boy a gentle shake. “It was just a bad dream.” The little boy clutched at her as she sat down and wrapped her arms around him. “Do you want to tell me about it?” she asked stroking her hand over his silky white hair.

He sniffled a bit, then answered, “I was lying in my bed. Then I wasn’t. Someone was talking to me asking me to play with them. To go somewhere else, but I didn’t want to go. They got mad at me.” He looked up at her and his lip trembled. “They tried to hurt me, tama.”

“I know. You did well to refuse.”

Her heart was breaking. He was only nine summers old, too young for the hard fate that was now before him. She continued to stroke his hair. The imekari was clever and quick to learn his lessons. He was kind and patient with the younger imekari, protecting them from the older ones that might pick on them. But he could be impetuous as others of his age were. That impetuousness led him to falling out of a tree and breaking his horn the previous year; it had healed but would always remain crooked. Her hand paused; it would unless the arvaarads cut them off. She pressed her nose into his hair, the scent of lightning lingered faintly over the normal scent she associated with the young.

“Are you crying, tama?”

“No, imekari. Do you think you can go back to sleep now?”

He nodded. She stood up and tucked him back into the bed and walked to the door. Turning back, she glanced over the sleeping imekari in their bed. It was her role to raise the young until they are ready to take their place and fulfill their role in the Qun, but for one of her charges to be a saarebas, it hurt knowing what awaited him.

She lay in her own bed and dreaded the report that she had to file the next day and the resulting actions that would be triggered by it. The tamassrans that kept all the records of breedings would be required to identify all offspring resulting from the same pairing as her imekari but also those from the same dam and sire. Arvaarads would be involved to determine the source of the magic and locate any who were tainted by that evil. Her role in the event would end tomorrow.

In the morning, she escorted the arvaarad to the play area. He waited by the door as she went to fetch the imekari.

“Imekari, you must come with me,” she said, drawing him from where he played with the others by his hand. She stopped before she got to the arvaarad and crouched down in front of him. “This is important, so I need you to listen closely. You are very special and you have an important role within the Qun.” She clasped his shoulders gently. “It is a difficult role but you are strong and patient; I know you won’t falter. Always do as you are told and do not resist.” Her eyes memorized his young face, trying and failing to not imagine his face marred by the stitches and hidden behind the mask of the saarebas. “Remember that I’m proud of you.”

The little boy reached up and traced the tears that fell unheeded down her face. “Yes, tama,” he said quietly then walked to the arvaarad the waited for him with his first collar.

She watched sadly as he was led away and hoped that death found him quickly.


End file.
